The emanation of vital energy from life forms is believed to have originated in ancient times, and appears in the writings and art of Egypt, India, Greece, and Rome. In the sixteenth century, Paracelsus was one of the first Western scholars to expound upon the astral body, which he described as a "fiery globe." In the eighteenth century, the clairvoyant Emanuel Swedenborg said in his Spiritual Diary that "there is a spiritual sphere surrounding every one, as well as a natural and corporal one."
The scientific study of the aura began in the late eighteenth century, when Franz Anton Mesmer put forth the theory of "animal magnetism," an electromagnetic force that could be transmitted from one person to another and effect healing. In 1845, Baron Karl von Reichenbach, a German chemist, announced the discovery of the "odic force" energy. Reich-enbach's clairvoyant test subjects sat in darkened rooms and saw flame-like energy radiating from fingertips, animals, plants, magnets, and certain crystals. The subjects described seeing flames of red, orange, green, and violet, which alternately appeared and disappeared; a violet-red, which disappeared in a smokelike vapor; and intermingled in streamers, sparks and stars among all colors.
Shortly before World War I, Dr. Walter J. Kilner, who was in charge of electrotherapy at St. Thomas's Hospital in London, discovered that an apparent human aura could be made visible if viewed through an apparatus containing a coal-tar dye called dicyanin, which made ultraviolet light visible.
Kilner saw the aura as a faint haze, which sometimes could be separated into two or three portions. It enveloped the whole body. Men in good health all showed the same aura characteristics, women, however, varied. In childhood their auras appeared the same as males, but by adulthood were more developed and more refined in texture, according to Kilner.
He divided the aura into three parts: (1) the etheric double, a transparent dark space, narrow and often obliterated by the second band; (2) the inner aura, fairly constant in size and the densest portion; and (3) the outer aura, varied in size, which often appears blended into the inner aura. He also observed rays emanating from the body in healthy people. Kilner noticed that the aura reflected the state of health, and by 1919, formulated a method of auric diagnosis of illness. In some cases the aura was affected only locally, while in other illnesses, the entire aura was affected; as the patient recovered, so did the aura. Kilner also noticed that weak, depleted auras drains the auric energy of healthy, vigorous auras around them.
Kilner published the results of his early research in The Human Aura in 1911. It was greeted with a great deal of skepticism, but he continued his experiments, attracting the interest of Sir Oliver Lodge. Kilner's work was interrupted by World War I. In 1920, he published a revised edition of his book, which was sympathetically reviewed.
Those who are sensitive to emanations from the aura, see the aura as emanating from and interpenetrating the human body. Health and emotion show in various colors, energy patterns or breaks, and clear and cloudy spots.
Physical health appears to be related to the part of the aura that is closest to the body, often called the vital body or etheric body. It is said that illness manifests first in the etheric body, sometimes months or years before its physical symptoms manifest. Except for the etheric body, which appears to directly affect health, the composition of the aura is the subject of conflicting opinions. No two observers see exactly the same aura. Some say they see the entire aura, divided into different layers or bodies, while others say they see only parts of the aura.
Interpretations of the colors seen in the aura vary considerably. There is little agreement by observations made by those sensitive to emanations from the aura, as to what is seen when they view an aura that is exactly same. Some say they see the entire aura, divided into different layers or bodies, while others say they see only parts of the aura. Further, it appears that the aura fluctuates constantly, and that various colors reflect the fluctuations.
To reduce the variability in interpretation and improve the repeatability, Semyon Davidovich Kirlian, a Russian electrician, began work in 1939 that led to the development of techniques purported to record the aura on film.
Kirlian Photography
Kirlian photography is a technique for photographing objects in the presence of a high frequency, high voltage, low current electrical field. The photographs of which show glowing, multicolored emanations are said to be auras or biofields. Some researchers say it reveals a physical form of psychic energy. Others believe that it reveals the etheric body; that is, one of the layers of the aura believed to permeate all living things and, that an understanding of this energy will lead to greater insights into medicine, psychology and healing. Critics say the technique shows nothing more than a discharge of electricity, which can be produced under certain conditions.
Prior to Kirlian's work, the process of photographing objects in electrical fields was generally known as "electrography" or "electrographic photography." Little value was seen in the process, which received scant attention from researchers. Electrographic photographs date to as early as 1898, when another Russian, Yakov Narkevich Yokdo (also given as Todko), displayed his work at a photographic exhibition. Research was published by a Czech, B. Navratil, in the early 1900s. In 1939, two Czech researchers, S. Prat and J. Schlemmer, published photographs of leaves showing coronas.
Kirlian used his own hand for his first experiment, and photographed a strange glow radiating from the fingertips. He and his wife, Valentina, a biologist, experimented with photographing both live and inanimate subjects. In the ensuing years, the couple refined their equipment and graduated from black-and-white to color photography.
The principle of Kirlian photography and all electrography is the corona discharge phenomenon, which occurs when an electrically grounded object discharges a corona between itself and an electrode generating the electrical field. The corona discharges are captured on film, appearing as coronas of light. These discharges can be affected by temperature, moisture, pressure, and other environmental factors. Various Kirlian techniques have been developed, but the most basic uses a Tesla coil connected to a metal plate. The process is similar to one that occurs in nature, when electrical conditions in the atmosphere produce luminescences and auras, such as St. Elmo's fire.
Kirlians' work was brought to the attention of the West in the 1960s. Response in the scientific community was mixed, but sufficient interest led to a gathering of interested scientists in Alma Ata in 1966. Biophysicist Viktor Adamenko theorized that the energy field was the "cold emission of electrons," and their patterns might suggest new information about the life processes of animate objects. Adamenko and other Soviet scientists discerned that biological energies of humans were brightest at the seven hundred points on the body that coincide with Chinese acupuncture points.
Kirlian photos are said to reveal health and emotion by changes in the brightness, colors, and patterns of the light. Experiments in the 1970s, conducted by Thelma Moss and Kendall Johnson at the University of California's Center for Health Sciences at Los Angeles, showed changes in a plant's glow when approached by a human hand and pricked. When part of a leaf was cut off, a glowing outline of the amputated portion still appeared on film. Moss, Kendall, and other researchers found that the glow around humans similarly reflected changes in emotional state.
Some Kirlian enthusiasts consider the phantom leaf phenomenon evidence for the existence of an etheric body. However, critics say the phenomenon disproves Kirlian photography altogether; Should the method truly have photographed a biofield, then the aura should disappear when an organism dies. The effect that is produced is solely by a high-voltage electric field breakdown of air molecules between two condenser plates.
Supporters nonetheless foresee applications of Kirlian photography in diagnostic medicine. Experiments using Kirlian photographs to detect cancer have been sporadically successful. Some researchers envision diagnostic systems that combine Kirlian photography with computerized tomography (CT) scanners (advanced versions of computerized axial tomography or CAT scanners, which utilize a thin beam of X-rays to photograph an object from 360 degrees) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The latter technique uses no X-rays, but uses magnetic fields to produce images of body cells and water in tissues.
Chakras
Chakras are the vortices that penetrate the body and the body's aura, through which various energies, including the universal life force, are received, transformed, and distributed. Chakras are believed to play a vital role in physical, mental, and emotional health and in spiritual development. They are invisible to ordinary sight but may be perceived clairvoyantly or by use of aura photography. It is said of some people that they can activate the chakras to whirl faster and can direct the flow of energy through them.
Chakra is Sanskrit for "wheel." Chakras are said to be shaped like multicolored lotus petals or spoked wheels that whirl at various speeds as they process energy. There are differences between the two systems, and in various Western descriptions of the chakras.
There is no accepted scientific definite evidence that the chakras exist; until recently, they were dismissed by Western medicine. They have been increasingly acknowledged, along with the acupuncture, meridians and other Eastern Systems, in alternative treatments. Evidence for the existence of chakras, albeit controversial, has been presented by Hiroshi Motoyama of Japan, who hypothesized that an enlightened person could influence the chakras, and the energy output would be measurable. Using a lead-lined recording booth, Motoyama measured the energy field opposite various chakras which subjects claimed to have awakened, usually through years of meditation. He found that the energy levels at those areas were significantly greater than over the same areas of control subjects.
The health of chakras is diagnosed by clairvoyance or by energy scans. Clairvoyants say that health disturbances often manifest in the aura, and thus in the chakras, months and sometimes years before they manifest in the physical body.